Soil Hydrology Demonstrator

How do you demonstrate to schools the different properties of hard engineered surfaces, grassland and peatlands?

One approach has been to use pop-bottles cut in half and filled with divots of soil, but the Devon Wildlife Trust wanted something more sophisticated and reliable to show the differences in surface runoff and absorbency of different soils.

Our solution is a bespoke soil-hydrology demonstrator, divots of real grassland or peat can be fitted into the transparent troughs - or even a custom made 'concrete block' can be slid into place. Accurate amounts of water can be poured onto the different 'habitats' and both runoff and groundwater percolating slowly through the body of the soil are collected separately. Qualitative demonstration work fine, but you can also make quantitative measurements to show the differences between runoff, groundwater flow and how much water is absorbed into the soil for each habitat.

"Wow! What a great science experiment" - teacher feedback

Our use of custom-designed 3D printed parts on a wooden baseboard creates a robust and attractive piece of equipment to engage and fascinate pupils of all ages.The whole unit packs up into a relatively small and secure plastic box for transpotartation and storage. Made of PLA, wood, aluminium alloy and glass it is also recyclable at the end of its life cycle.

The solid hydrology demonstrator is available as single or multiple units made to order, please contact us with your requirements. We are also happy to discuss modifications or other bespoke demonstration units you may require.